Northwest Iowa — Some crop experts are questioning the very high corn yield numbers put out by the USDA in August. The agency estimates Iowa’s average corn yield at 197 bushels per acre, five bushels better than last year’s record yield.
Iowa State University Agronomist Joel De Jong says while he doesn’t agree completely with the very high estimate, he says the USDA usually does a pretty good job at estimating the yield.
He says he thinks that yields will vary somewhat.
According to De Jong, the yield estimates he’s heard about after silage harvests varied a great deal. On one farm in Plymouth County the yield was only estimated at about 140 bushels to the acre, and on another farm that he believes was in Sioux County, they harvested silage and the yield estimate there was 240 bushels to the acre. Averaging those together does come out to around that 190 bushel to the acre mark.
The USDA crop report issued on August 12 estimated the 2016 total U.S. corn production at an all-time record level of 15.15 billion bushels. The projection, if accurate, would best the previous record U.S. corn production of 14.2 billion bushels in 2014.
